I’m mostly a one woman band with a tight budget. At this point in my author career, I trade sweat equity for getting the word out about my books. I’ve spent the first half+ of the year throwing lots of effort into a broad selection of social media and platforms. In this post, I’ll share what I think I learned.
I say “think” I learned, because the one sure thing is social media changes quickly. One minute you know what to do and the next not so much.
I have two businesses: My fiction writing and indie publishing stories for horse lovers at Barbara Ellin Fox, and The Riding Instructor, which focuses on nonfiction help for people who teach horseback riding. Sometimes (but rarely) these groups intersect. Normally, the Riding Instructor crowd tolerates me when I mention my fiction.
Rather than pick one or two social media venues, I chose a full course mainly because I didn’t know which I could work with best. I only suggest approaching social media this way if you have a lot of time and nerves of steel.
I’ll give you a general evaluation for each piece of my platform based on the perceived return for the amount of effort I’ve spent. Please remember my experience will be different than yours.
YouTube
After utilizing “Shorts” for books, and longer form for some teaching, I am finally willing to admit I am not a YouTuber. YouTube doesn’t like my book shorts and the more I add the lower my views. I find the platform cumbersome for uploading and setting up each video. The captions process is confusing. Even adding music from their music library requires extra steps. I’ll still keep my account because it is the best for including videos on my web pages, but I don’t plan to invest anymore time in YouTube videos.
Pinterest
If you are familiar with Pinterest, you know it’s a visual platform where people share pins. Pins range from things to dream about, things to laugh about or encourage, to things to learn. Each pin can have a live link to your store, blog post, or website. You can pin each topic multiple times as long as your pins are creatively different. Consumer consumption is the focus on Pinterest, engagement not so much. Pinterest participants like the Riding Instructor better than my posts about books. Currently, The Riding Instructor Pinterest page receives 13.1 K plus views a month and is growing. My author page reached 1.3 K views and is decreasing. I’ll continue using Pinterest for The Riding Instructor and will only use it as an author when I release a new book
Facebook
I had to rebuild my personal page and cannot access my original author page ,so I chose the professional option, which allows follows. I’m inconsistent.
The Riding instructor Facebook page has 1.9 K followers. It’s easy to maintain with posts from the blog and other informative shares about horses.
The real value I have found for my fiction is in the special interest groups for horse lovers and horse book lovers. They are a wonderful way to interact with readers and other authors. I also belong to 12-14 pages that promote indie published books. Several times a week I upload a meme and my book blurb, and they are shared with thousands of people. The downfall is these sites attract book marketers.
Instagram
Due to the loss of my original Facebook page, I have not put a lot of effort into Instagram. I have a new page and post periodically. I’m undecided on how I want approach Instagram. Many authors follow the 80/20 rule but just as many don’t.
My daughter handles The Riding Instructor on Instagram. It’s consistently popular and growing.
X
X confuses me. This is not new, it confused me as Twitter, too. I have played around with my personal account, but until I learn more about X it doesn’t qualify as as part of my platform.
TikTok
TikTok has been the biggest surprise. If you follow my newsletter, you know that in January, my daughter convinced me to try TikTok. By the end of the month, my Kindle page reads had doubled, then they tripled, and have continued to grow each month. I see a direct relationship between my TikTok activity and this increase.
I try to post twice a day on every weekday. While I love followers and likes, the key for me is views from the For You page. The For You page is where TikTok suggests your video to people who aren’t followers. Even if I only receive 150 views on a video, when I post twice a day that’s 300 people, mostly new, that see something about my books. Some videos get 700 views.
Book Funnel
I use it for group promos, and the results haven’t thrilled me.
My Marketing Method
I’ve done faceless marketing everywhere, including TikTok. You won’t find me dancing to the latest songs or see me reading chapters of my books. I may change this in the future, but right now I’m happy with faceless.
The more time I spend with social media, the less I’m stressed. I do what I can with what I have, and I’m constantly looking for ways to improve. I strive to be consistent but I don't chastise myself if I miss a day.
And More. . .
Websites, newsletters, and blogs are technically not part of social media but I believe they are the three most important pieces of an author’s platform because they will not be taken away by a Facebook whim or the government.
Website
The foundation of your platform is a website. It’s home. A place to keep all the information you want to share about your books. It’s the place to tell people who you are. Once your website is set up you only need to make minimal regular changes when you have a new book.
A newsletter
is your best tool for keeping in touch with your readers. We all have our personal taste and twist. I like clean newsletters with easy to read print and I like them to be interesting with relevant news. Currently I work to write one for each of my venues a month. I love the people who read my newsletters, am thrilled when they respond, and my newsletters have a very good open rate. The riding instructor newsletter list is much larger than my author list. I’ve had lead magnets for a long time but I’m not sure I like lead magnets.
Blog.
No matter what you hear or read, blogging is not dead. Evidence is right here that you are reading mine. I have blogged in one form or another for at least 16 years and have been favored by Google and ignored by Google. I’ve watched Google make life more difficult for bloggers, too. Google and search engine ranking are not the reasons I blog. I use my posts for a variety of purposes from expressing my opinions to sharing news to teaching. Blogging is an outstanding way to organize thoughts. And reading blogs is a good way to get to know people and for them to get to know you.
For the Rest of the Year
So, In a nutshell, aside from preparing a book for publication, I have a plan to focus my efforts for the rest of the year. I’ll concentrate on maintaining:
Websites
Newsletters
Blogs
TikTok
Facebook
My new emphasis will be on developing a launch team for a late fall book. Here’s a link to the sign-up form. I'd love to have you join the team.
My other emphasis will be on learning Instagram.
Pinterest will drop off for my author page, but I’ll keep going with The Riding Instructor.
YouTube will drop off for both.
And if I ever want to look into a scary dark hole, I’ll research X
HELP!
I’d love to hear/read your low budget ideas for marketing! Will you share one or two in the comments? And if you don’t have an idea, perhaps you see a hole in what I’m doing. If so, please help!
And if you have a question about what I’m doing, please feel free to ask.
Blessings for terrific stories and successful publishing!
Barbara Ellin Fox
